Victor Pițurcă (; born 8 May 1956) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player. Club career Pițurcă was born in Orodel, Dolj County. He joined Universitatea Craiova as a youth in 1970, aged 14, and four years later he was loaned to Dinamo Slatina, a club from Romania's Liga II, in order to gain more experience, before being called back to Craiova in 1975, making his debut for the team in November that year. As he was not used much by Universitatea, Pițurcă left the club in 1977 to join Pandurii Târgu Jiu and then FC Drobeta Turnu-Severin, from where he was signed by FC Olt, thus returning to play in Liga I. In 1983, he was requested by Steaua, helping the club to reach its highest peak in European football. Pițurcă won with Steaua the European Cup in 1986, the European Super Cup in 1987, and was the semi-finalist in the same competition losing to Benfica in 1988. During the 1988–89 season the team reached the European Cup final again, but lost to Milan. As for domestic performances, Pițurcă won the championship with Steaua București five times and the Romanian Cup four times. At the end of the 1987–88 season he was the top scorer of Liga I and won UEFA's Bronze Boot. A very funny moment happened in 1989 during the European Cup semi-final played by Steaua against Galatasaray in İzmir when the Turkish side's goalkeeper relieved the ball hitting Pițurcă's back and from there the ball went straight into the goal. However, the goal was not validated because the referee did not see what happened. On 25 March 2008, he was awarded the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" medal — (The Order "The Merit for Sports Achievement") class II by the president of Romania, Traian Băsescu for his part in winning the 1986 European Cup Final. International career Despite being a prolific striker, Pițurcă only won 13 caps for Romania, scoring six times. Coaching career After playing for Racing Club de Lens during the 1989–90 season, Pițurcă called it a day and retired from professional football to take over as coach. His first appointment was with Steaua București in 1991, followed by another one with Universitatea Craiova in 1994, finishing second in the championship at the end of 1994–95 season. In 1996, he was named coach of the Romania Under 21 side, leading the team to its